Cox company Dealer.com offers a suite of marketing applications and support for online and digital marketing, product presentation and dealer websites, digital advertising and retargeting, and managed services if desired.
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VinSolutions
Score 7.6 out of 10
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VinSolutions, a Cox Automotive company, offers a suite of CRM and operational support applications for auto dealerships.
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Pricing
Dealer.com
VinSolutions
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dealer.com
VinSolutions
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Dealer.com
VinSolutions
Considered Both Products
Dealer.com
No answer on this topic
VinSolutions
Verified User
Director
Chose VinSolutions
I really have not used any other product like VinSolutions, it was the first program of its type that we evaluated and it does everything we want, with no downsides that are noted. Because of that, along with the integration into the other programs we use in other aspects of …
Dealer.com is good at figuring out unique filters for how inventory will show up on the website. When vehicles should/should not show up, badges on particular vehicles, etc. Easy to change website templates. The issue is that templates are all starting to look alike. Also, they do try to make things look nice but are falling behind in functionality. For example, specials pages. I know people don't think much of blogs, but that is where we can post local content and Google crawl and use that for search engines. Dealer.com is probably one of the worst with blogs. Either you have to pay for it separately just to have it (not included in the website), or you have to have Premium SEO Package.
It is well suited to customer communication - emails/calls/texts. It helps with all those. You are able to get personal by adding notes to remember in the future, or tasks to complete down the road. It keeps history, so no salesperson can argue who did want and who gets the credit. Essentially, it is the final word - if the employee doesn't record it in Vin - then it didn't happen and anyone can help a customer. Seems to be less appropriate for actual marketing-related activities (as mentioned with their campaign manager).
Tracks sold logs, desk logs, offers, etc. so there is no confusion over what was offered or by whom.
Gives a clear, concise list of sold vehicles, who sold them, and front and back end gross for easy reference.
Trade appraisals are clearly visible, along with who appraised them, so there is no potential for misunderstanding between the sales managers, GSM and GM.
Advertising (adwords/FB). Our rep used to lead that and we would discuss results and game plans on each monthly call. Apparently, now, they moved all advertising to a group and some random person handles it and I never get told anything anymore. No monthly calls, no strategies. If I even want to know the results, I have to force communications instead of them sending me results/reports themselves.
Cookie-cutter approach to all content creation, SEO work, advertising, etc. No local touch or unique detail is given.
Falling behind the competition. The details they are improving are not the things that are important to my managers/our team. Managers now bring up how other sites are better than ours a lot more than they used to.
Because VinSolutions is able to pull customers lists, they also made a campaigns manager that allows you to create marketing emails and send them out. However, after the initial launch they never updated it, it seems. It would be the best thing...if it was 2005.
This customer lists that I like to export to upload into my own email software, I can't get the actual list myself - I have to contact my Vin rep for them to give me. These lists are not the same, nor have the same filters, as the report lists that Vin does provide dealers. So, I prefer the other.
Technical support, general customer support, implementation support are all top notch. All representatives from the company check in every couple weeks to make sure all is going well; if there is a problem, I generally have a solution given within hours if not soon; and they are friendly, easy to understand, and do a great job. Well done!
How can you give concrete info on ROI? A website is a requirement, so obviously it has had a positive impact since that is the #1 place customers will shop our inventory.
Traffic to our website has steadily increased over the years, so we know that Google is still finding it, and it's doing its job for searches.
Not sure about our financial investment in VinSolutions, but we have been with them for over 10 years, so our management keeps choosing it over other options (we have reviewed others in the past recommended by our dealer group).
Positive impact on keeping our customers...ours. This avoids sales consultants recording their customers in some random ledger of their own...and then taking that list with them when they leave - especially to another dealership. This ensures that each person is the dealership's customer, and not the salesperson's customer.
History is recorded, and we never know what we need until we run into an issue. VinSolutions is our go-to for many past communications and transactions. It provides a 'road to the sale' story that managers can pull up to help them navigate concerns.
